


Pygmachophobia; fear of boxes.

by Blurry_Moth



Category: DreamSMP
Genre: Fluff and Angst, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 22:13:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29923593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blurry_Moth/pseuds/Blurry_Moth
Summary: Tubbo and TommyInnit play hide and seek but due to Tubbo's Fear of boxes the game is ruined. So TommyInnit decided to help Tubbo figure out where the fear started so he can help him get over it.
Kudos: 15





	Pygmachophobia; fear of boxes.

Tubbo sat on the edge of the large bed, kicking his feet up and nodding his head humming the beat to a song he had long forgotten the words too. His brown hair shot out in light puffs, his light blue overalls were too big on him so one of the straps hung loosely and the bottoms were rolled up; they were definitely an old hammi-down of tommy’s.   
Speaking of Tommy, the door was kicked open by a bright eyed and bushy tailed blonde walking through it.  
“TUBBO.”   
Tommy made his entrance announcing Tubbo’s name. Tubbo happily turned to meet Tommy embrace, he ran forward. Both their arms reaching out for each other when Tubbo mistyped and they clashed their heads together.   
Wilbur walked the corner of the doorway and stared at the two boys sitting on the ground, groaning and holding their heads and letting loose a small chuckle.   
“I see you guys are trying to share even more brain cells?” He laughed light heartedly.  
“Shut up, you play guitar.” Tommy spat back, still clutching his head.   
“And how is that a bad thing?” Wilbur said leaning forward to stare Tommy in the eyes.  
“Your hands,”Tommy pointed at Wilbur's fingers, “Gonna be all rough. Girls don’t like rough things, that’s why they are so soft.”   
“And you're a woman expert?” Wilbur spoke softly with a full grin on his face.   
“YES, I AM,” Tomy announced proudly, “ I HAVE MANY GIRLFRIENDS!”  
“How many?” Wilbur pressed his lips together amused at his little brother’s ‘girlfriends’.   
“A hundred.” Tommy said matter of factly.   
“I see. And you are aware that girls who are friends don’t count as girlfriends.” Wilbur said carefully.   
“What? What are they then?” Tubbo asked, genuinely unaware.  
“They are your slaves. BACK TO THE KITCHEN.” Tommy howled with laughter.   
“NO, DON’T TELL HIM THAT.” Wilbur angrily corrected.   
“They are unless you're a pussy, like wilbur.” Tommy stuck out his tongue.   
Wilbur’s face burst red. “WHERE DID YOU LEARN THAT WORD?”  
“I never kiss and tell,”  
“YOUR TEN?”  
“Yeah and you suck with the ladies.” Tommy grinned.   
Wilbur looked like a tea kettle about to burst. He raised his hand holding up one finger and opened his mouth but Tubbo interrupted him.   
“How about a game of hide n’ seek?” He clasped his hands together in anticipation and drawing both of the boys' attention towards him.   
“Well since Phil and Techno left me in charge I would say that's-” Wilbur began, but Tommy, eager to interrupt, budded in.   
“A SPLENDID IDEA.” 

So the game began. Wilbur leaned against a wooden beam that held strong against the door frame and hid his face in his arm and began his count. Tubbo and Tommy scurried away down the halls of the massive house in which they all lived. The sound of their boots against the hardwood floor echoed through the house and brought a light smile to wilbur’s lips.   
“ ‘ow about in techno’s room here?” Tommy said jumping up and grabbing onto the doorknob.   
“He’ll kill us won’t he?” Tubbo said terrified. He remembered quite well the exact threats techno had pinned to the wall and he would like to keep his orphan blood intact and not in the strawberry jam that techno drowns his toast in.   
“Only if we get caught.” Tommy says smugly.   
“Isn’t that the point of hide n’ seek Tommy?” Tubbo stares deeply at Tommy, “That we hide and someone comes and seeks us out. Catching us in Techno’s room.”  
Tommy pauses, thinking for a moment of that idea. He shrugs and shuts the door. They quickly run up to the closet door at the end of the hall, nothing inside of but a couple of old shoes, coats, and a box. Tubbo reflexively shrinks away, not liking the idea of hiding in the box; no sir, he did not do any part of that box's funny business. But before he could protest Tommy scooped him up, tossing him into it.   
“Now listen very carefully Tubbo, I’m gonna go hide in Will’s room. You stay here. And remember snitches don’t get to play next time. “ Tommy points at Tubbo then shuts the door and Tubbo can hear him rustling away.   
The closet is dark and Tubbo can only hear his own breathing. His hands begin to shake, his eyes begin to flash around anxiously. He, he can’t control his own heart beat as it zooms 200 hundred miles per hour. Tear’s begin to form in his eyes as he plops down and begins to sob.   
“I hate it here. I hate this stupid box. I want out.” tubbo sobbed.   
He pushed his hands into his face and his tears poured out around them. Luckily, in nearly seconds the door was quickly opened to reveal a rather nervous wilbur.   
“Tubbo, are you okay?”  
“No, no, no,no I want out. Please don’t leave me in here, Wilbur, I hate it.” Tubbo’s hands pulled away from his face to reveal tearful eyes and a snotty nose, “Please.”   
Tubbo begged and cried in a way Wilbur had never seen before. Tubbo had always been a nice and quiet child. The exact opposite of Tommy in every way. Even when Tubbo scraped his knees or bruised an elbow he would always quietly take care of himself and never even dare bother Phil. Compared to Tommy’s howls of anger and misery at the mere inconvenience of a paper cut. It was terrifying to see him bawl in such a way. He quickly reached forward and scooped poor Tubbo out of the box, gently pressing Tubbo’s head against his neck in an attempt to calm the sobbing tot.  
After comforting Tubbo, Wilbur went and kicked open the door that led to Techno’s room. And sure enough, just as wilbur expected there was the little goblin himself. He had managed to get up on Techno’s huge bed and was reaching out for the huge engraved diamond axe that techno kept hanging above his pillow. Wilbur could never understand why Techno slept with an axe above him, he would often wonder solemnly if it was because Techno thought he could truly never die. At the sound of wilbur kicking down the door, Tommy shot up in freight and fell face first onto Techno’s huge fur blankets.   
Tommy sat up in a spur of energy.   
“WHA-” He looked around like a meerkat surveying the surroundings in search of a deadly predators when his eyes locked with Wilbur’s.   
“Sup bitch.” Tommy plopped back down on his bottom and crossed his arms grinning up at Wilbur, unafraid and unashamed.   
WIlbur scowled at Tommy’s use of foul language.   
“YOU ARE A RUNT. YOU KNOW THAT?” Wilbur angrily gestured at Tommy; now sat up in righteous ignition.   
“WHAT? ME? THE RUNT? I AM NO RUNT. I’M THE ALPHA MALE HERE BETA CUCK.” Tommy howled with laughter at that.   
“You know Tubbo is scared of boxes and you just up and tossed him in one. FOR NO REASON.” Wilbur growled at Tommy, now setting down Tubbo whose tears still streamed from his cheek.   
“Uh, no stupid, there was a reason. To win hide n’ seek.” Tommy turned to look at Tubbo, “And we would’ve won for once if he wasn’t afraid of nothing.”  
Tommy leaned in close to Tubbo, looking him directly in the eyes.   
“Tubbo, you are my favorite brother,” Tommy spoke carefully, ”can you please tell me why you're so afraid of boxes? I promise not to laugh.”  
Tubbo shook his head.  
‘I’m sorry, but I can’t remember. It just makes me so so so,” Tubbo looked away embarrassed, “scared.”  
“Well, HOW ABOUT WE USE THE MAGIC FOUNTAIN.” Tommy asserted.   
If Wilbur had been drinking a drink right then and there Tommy would have been covered in a mixture of his spit and water; luckily for Tommy he wasn’t, Unluckily for Tommy that meant all hell was about to rain down from WIlbur.   
“This is a terrible idea.” Wilbur gestured angrily, as he got louder and louder, “What if you both get hurt? Dad will never leave us alone again. Techno will never trust me again. I simply won’t have any part in this madness.”  
“That’s fine by me because you were never invited.” Tommy angrily stuck out his tongue and crossed his arms. “I can’t believe MY big brother is such a baby.”  
“I’M NOT THE CHILD HERE TOMMY.” Wilbur’s face blew up with red and his pupils dilated angrily. “YOU ARE BEING STUPID AND IMMATURE.”   
“Baby says what?”  
“What?” Wilbur screams with rage, “wait- HOW DARE YOU? I CAN’T BELIEVE SOMEONE WOULD BE SO,” Wilbur searched his mind for a new insult but didn’t come across one fast enough, “SO STUPID. I’M LEAVING.”   
And with that wilbur turned and left in a steaming cloud of his own anger.   
Tommy laughed and turned back to Tubbo.   
“See if we weren’t supposed to use the wishing well then why haven’t we come back in time to stop ourselves?”  
Tubbo looked down at the floor and thought hard about that, Tommy striked a seriously good point. He then went to open his mouth to protest but found he couldn’t disagree.   
“Okay.”   
“THATTA BOY TUBSY.” Tommy victoriously shouted and he pulled the lever that opened the door to the basement.   
The dark wooden stairs were hard for Tubbo to go down but through Tommy's questionable guidance they made it through. They passed through the hallways of chests, passed techno’s weird inside potato farm/lab, and right past the locked door that held the portal to the nether.   
“Here we are tubs,” Tommy pointed up at the item frame that held a potion. “The wizard room.”   
Pushing through the dark oak door, revealed a stunningly beautiful room that Tubbo had yet to see in his time living with Dadza. There were very tall bookshelves covered in colorful books which tommy angrily muttered about never having enough pictures, lecterns covered in journals from someone’s very messy handwriting, knocked over bottles of ink and feathers, potions makers still brewing healing potions which scent was warm and very inviting, a magical table that held a floating book that twirled and spinned, and even opened when approached but Tubbo was terrified of it. He strunk behind Tommy in fright.   
“Aw tubs, it’s just a enchanty table thingy, makes stuff magic. Dad uses it to make his and techno’s armour better.” Tommy happily explained.   
This made Tubbo feel a bit better but it was still incredibly intimidating to him.   
There was a cauldron with dyed water so it bubbled a fascinating purple, upon tommy dipping one of his leather boots in, it came out that same fascinating purple. This temporarily distracted the boys as they went around the magic room dipping every single stash of leather armour into it; making them as colorful as the paintings and banners around them. But when Tubbo wanted to make the water a vibrant lime green; tommy’s nose scrunched as he admitted that he couldn’t stand such a color and they continued on exploring the magic room until they came face to face with a small fountain in the ground. Made entirely from pristine prismarine, tiny bits of rainbow coral sprinkled the ground, the edges of the fountain were dotted with bunches of flowers, and prismarine lights glowed from the deepest parts illuminating it in a very exciting fashion.   
“Now I’ve snuck down here quite a few times and I’ve witnessed first hand what dadza does.” Tommy says confidently.   
“What does the well do?” Tubbo shly questions as he hasn’t quite been told yet.   
“It shows your memories, even if you can’t remember them. It’ll show us why you're so scared of boxes tubsy.”   
Tubbo only nodded in response, so Tommy got straight to recreating what he saw philza and technoblade do when they looked into techno’s memoires.  
Tommy peered into the chest that lay nestled in the shrubbery and a delight grin filled his face.  
“Lookie here tubs,” Tommy raised a small blue shiny rock above his head, “A diamond.”   
Tubbo gasped, he knew those little rocks were rare and very valuable.   
“I don’t know tommy, won’t dadza be mad at us?”  
“No, of course no Tubbo, no one could ever get mad at us, I mean look at you,” Tommy gestures at Tubbo, “Your adorable, I recon we could get away with practically murder.”   
Tubbo looked shock and tommy continued without missing a beat, “Well I don’t mean actual murder, Yes I do, No no no, Tubbo It’ll be fine.”   
Tommy took an armful of ingredients out of the chest and began dumping them into fountain without a single care in the world. He hummed as he did and Tubbo merrily nodded his head along to the beat Tommy sang out.   
The fountain began to glow and zap, colors swishing and swirling, the water bubbling in some spots and froze in others creating a small circle in front of Tommy and Tubbo that was clear white water.   
“YES, IT’S WORKING.” Tommy happily shouted.   
“Alright Tubbo, we just have to-” Tommy plucked a hair from Tubbo’s brown fluff and flicked it in,” And then,” Tommy leaned over and shouted into the pulsating waters, “show us why Tubbo is afraid of boxes.”   
“Now Tubbo we just stick our heads in and see.”   
“Won’t we drown?” Tubbo’s eyes widened at the thought of not being able to pull his head back out of the water.  
“No silly Tubbo, it’s magic water. We’ll be fineeeeeeeee. C’mon Tubsy.”   
Tommy held his hand out to Tubbo.   
“I promise. I’ll be right here. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”  
At that, although reluctantly, he accepted and they stood at the very edge of the pool.   
“Ready? 3, 2, 1… GO” Tommy counted them down and then they both plunged their heads. 

The world blurred and spinned but Tubbo found he was able to breathe. Slowly an apparition of the world of the past began to paint it’s scenes clearly. Dark night skies, the glow of the moon shone high above a blurry walking figure, but as it approached it became clear in detail. 

A tall man with uneven brown hair and just poking out of it was thick horns just barely beginning to curl around his ears. A satyre who hadn’t fully begun to be a man, his fairly young features exposed him of that. He wore tattered and worn clothing, small rips and tares littered his outfit even his shoes held holes and looked as if they were falling apart. He had deep dark bags underneath his eyes, he looked as if he had barely time to shave, let alone sleep. His sweater held a small faded name tag that said ‘J. Schlatt.’.   
An even smaller satyre sat happily on his shoulders, that messy brown hair, small hazel eyes, and cheeky grin, it was a very young Tubbo. Tubbo’s clothes were far too large for his small figure. His shorts seemed to be barely attached to his waist with a shoe string. His shoes hung loosely from his feet and they were mismatched.   
Schlatt scooped the tiny Tubbo up off his shoulders. Tubbo’s face glowed with admiration. He loved sitting up there on his dad’s shoulders; it was so high up there, he felt like the king of the world up there, and no one could stop him. Schlatt’s eyes washed over Tubbo’s clothes, The green oversized sweater, his shorts tied with a red shoelace, and the mismatched shoes that were two sizes too big and a rush of pain swarmed his eyes.   
He held tubbo in front of him.   
“Daddy.” Tubbo opened his arms and wrapped them around his father’s face, his small hands holding carefully onto Schlatt’s horns. Tubbo pulled his own face close in and nuzzled Schlatt affectionately.   
“Uh,” Schlatt hesitated with his next words and spoke carefully, “Heya kiddo.”   
His hands shook holding his baby boy so he pulled him into a tight hug, pressing Tubbo’s face into his neck. As Tubbo happily murmured at this rare moment of affection, Schlatt surveyed everything around him. They were completely alone on the street, it was littered with boxes, trash cans, and even the occasional pet cages and fish tanks.  
Schlatt’s eyes locked around a nearby box, it was large and relatively new, ‘perfect’ he thought. But his facial features only grew more and more tense, his shaking got more noticeably as small gushes of sweat peered over his face. He looked like a rabbit about to sprint away at any moment. He wiped away the sweat with his sleeve and he grabbed the back of his neck desperately trying to control his breathing.   
Tubbo pulled away from his father’s neck and stared directly into Schlatt's eyes. His hazel eyes gleamed in the moon light and reflected schlatt’s face back at him, but Tubbo only grinned unaware. Schlatt bit hard on the inside of his cheek, drawing blood.  
He couldn’t do this.  
He brought Tubbo into a close hug and his body heaved holding back small noises that brought concern from the tot. Tubbo pulled away and held onto his father’s face.  
“Are you okay daddy?”   
“Daddy is-” He stops himself, “I’m gonna to be fine.” He spoke with cold certainty.  
Schlatt gently pulls Tubbo away from his chest and his hands shake terribly. A look of fear passes into Tubbo’s eyes and Schlatt looks away, setting him down in the cardboard box in front of him.Tubbo tilted his head, mildly confused but happy to play along to one of these new games his clever father had invented. After all his daddy had created a lot of fun games that he didn’t quite understand but was happy to just make his daddy smile.Schlatt turned around and hid his face in hands, his stomach felt like it was exploding. Tubbo carefreely was holding onto his bee plushie and grinning up at schlatt who knelt in front of the box. His hand acted on it’s own will and he patted Tubbo, gently running his fingers through his hair. His hand froze as he realized what it was doing and quickly pulled away. Tubbo sensed something was wrong and stared up at his daddy with large questioning and unmoving eyes.  
“Daddy?”   
Tubbo’s heart began to pulse loudly as his dad hid his face in both of his hands before looking bad at Tubbo with an expression of tormat. He tore his eyes away from Tubbo and looked to his left and right as a trickle of sweat slithered down his face in a cool stream.  
The look of agony seemed to be powered through as his quivering lips forced into a smile. Schlatt began,   
“Tubbo, I-”   
But was interrupted by the sound of footsteps turning the corner and schlatt’s eyes shot to it and back to Tubbo before mouthing a tiny, ‘sorry’. And he tore off into the night.   
A pain shot through Tubbo as he pushed forward against the box.  
“DADDY?” Tubbo screamed out reaching for him, but as he pressed against the edge of the cardboard box, it fell over, shutting off Tubbo's view of his dad. He tried as hard as he could but he couldn’t get the box off of him, he screamed, and cried. He pushed and shoved with all his might but he couldn’t escape. He clawed, bit, and tore, and finally got the box off of him. But it was too late. Schlatt was gone. Tubbo was alone. 

Tubbo gasped hard as he felt his head pulled from the water. Tommy’s eyes were met with Tubbo’s. Tommy moved fast as he reached in close, holding tightly onto Tubbo.   
“Fuck him. I promise I will never ever leave you alone.”  
“You- you promise?” Tubbo held tightly onto Tommy, shaking lightly as he felt more tears pump down his cheeks.   
“I promise. After all, you are my best friend.”


End file.
